Spectrum
by ImmortalShippo
Summary: Rainbow Dash has a secret to share with some buddies from way back, and for once it's not being gay. Less OC chars in future.


Spectrum – Prologue

It was dark, windy, and the Weather Ponies were supposed to be whipping up that severe thunderstorm that night.

Absolutely wonderful flying conditions, wouldn't you agree?

Well, it didn't matter to Rainbow Dash, because she only had one thing on her mind:

Get to Revolver's house.

Revolver, a white, tall pegasus with dark red hair reminiscent of the Beatles (he was a bit retro) who was one of Rainbow Dash's other friends from way back, was residing in Cloudsdale back then, and his older (and shorter,) brother Snowball, (A blue-ish tint to his otherwise white coat, and a mane of grey-blond with white streaks,) who was all caught up in his Snow Distributing business ( he was head of the Department at the time,) was usually away, but tried to provide for the family, who were many, and as such, they never had very much money.

But Revolver, he was always at home, being employed in the emergency Reserves, the only branch of a military Equestria had ever needed.

And Rainbow Dash had a serious demand.

He was in the kitchen, listening to some old music on the radio and having a midnight snack.

Suddenly, a frantic knock on the door.

"Oi, who's that? It's the bloody middle of the fuzzing night ya know."

He opened the door, and there stood a drenched Rainbow Dash, but something was… off. For one, she wasn't pissed. Revolver didn't know _anypony _that wouldn't be pissed about being left to fly in the rain a few hours, and then being drenched without a towel, much less _Rainbow Dash. _Another thing, when Rainbow moved to Ponyville, she had lost contact with Revolver completely. It just wasn't like Rainbow to just show up like this. She obviously needed something, and it was important.

"R-Rainbow Dash? Oi 'aven't seen you in ages! What are you doing 'ere in that t-storm, eh?"

"Listen, Revolver, this is way more important than that. Is Snowball awake?"

"What's the rush? Stay a while! Glad ya still know 'is name, though. Care for a rose? Had them imported from Canterlot, ya know. Really expensive, these are."

Rainbow Dash, by this time, had finished drying herself off.

"No. No, Where's Snowball?"

"Uhh, 'e's asleep, yeh, why?"

"Go get him."

"Uhm, well oi-"

"GO. GET. HIM."

"Yeh, 'right."

He went down the hall.

"Oi Snowball, guess who showed up?"

"Uhng, quit it, man. Nopony shows up in the middle of the night, much less in a thunder storm."

"No, really, guess who?"

" *sigh* I dunno, Doctor Whoof again? I told him that he can't just prance around here whenever he wants, time portal or not."

Revolver let a huff out. "Hey, you know how fun meeting the ol' grandparents as fillies was. Well, anyways, it's Rainbow Dash."

"Fuzz off, ya liar."

"'M serious."

" *sigh* This shit always has to happen just before a big meeting, dosen't it?"

One could hear rustling inside the dark bedroom inside the evern darker hall. The door opened, and the light from a candle Snowball had lit threw two dark shapes on the walls of the hall.

"Okay, what kind of cardbo- OHMYCELESTIA,RAINBOWDASH. "

" *cough*toldya*cough* "

"Yeah, screw you. What are you here for, Rainbow? It's been so long! I wish I could offer you some Primroses, but SOMEPONY ate all of those yesterday."

Revolver rolled his eyes. "I already told ya, oi had Skyline over for lunch!"

"Well, now, Rainbow."

Rainbow, who, up to this point, had been uncharecteristically quiet (or patient) leaned in and gave a guilty whisper.

Everypony only gave a stunned gaze while Rainbow just looked down.

"W-wha? H... W... T-who? With... huh?" Snowball was lost for words.

"Uhm... Now, uhm, Rainbow, if you don't mind, erm...how far?"

Her response came quiet and afraid. "Four weeks."

"..."

Revolver put his head down. "Man, seems like, what, only yesterday, everypony was excited about the eighties coming and high school days being over, and now this? Darn, time flies."

"Something else'll be flying soon enough now, eh?" Snowball attempted to lighten the quickly spiraling conversation.

Revolver stood there for a long time before digging up the nerve to ask another question.

"So, uh... We're going to do, uh... what about this again?..."

Rainbow looked up at Revolver biting her lip, as if this was the hard part. " Uhh, I wanna, erm, kinda... Can I stay with you guys? Heh..."

Snowball almost dropped his candle.

"You wanna... What? we can't... I mean, we couldn't possibly support... How... We're struggiling now, Dash... I couldn't possibly support anyone else for that long. Besides, do you even HAVE health insurance?"

Rainbow nodded no.

"See? the hospital bill will be insane."

"I-... I'll pay it, but I just need somepony to stay with. I have about 3,000 bits on me."

This time Snowball did drop his candle.

"Crap, don't let the carpet catch on- no, ah CRAP! GET SOME WATER, REVOLVER."

The carpet, still ablaze, was doused with a bucket of water they used for cleaning dishes from the kitchen.

The candle had completly melted, as big as it was, leaving only a stump and a

"Great, a good thirty-two bit candle, GONE! And that carpet was sixty-two, aswell..."

"Who... pays _thirty-two bits_... for a _candle?_" Rainbow asked in another terrible attempt to lighten the pathetic conversation.

...

"Erm, so... Three thousand bits, huh?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, uh... You need to get some bedrest. You want mine? I can sleep on the couch."

* * *

><p>Spectrum - Chapter One: Cutie Mark<p>

She had a reddish mane, with rainbow-coloured hair that fell down, which she liked to tie into a ponytail.

Her wings were big for her size, and she was an excellent flyer already.

She had the strongest kick of anypony around, and nopony could guess why.

"Daddy, can we go and look at the zoo again?"

Revolver rolled his eyes. "No, sweetheart, I've already told you we don't have the money, and even if we did, do you really think I'd let you go two days in a row?"

"Aww, but daddy..."

"We can only do that sort of thing once a year."

"But what about my birthday? We go to the Pizza Parlour then!" Spectrum said, a look of dissapointment in her eyes.

"Well that's because the place offers free birthday pizza."

Ten years. It had been ten years since little Apple Spectrum was born. Apple because she was as red-ish as one, and Spectrum because, well, it was obvious. Or so Revolver told her, from time to time when she asked where she came from. She'd then probably go off wondering where apples came from, or if they came just in red, or if she'd ever see one, or what they looked like, the list went on from there. The point was, though, Revolver would always avoid the question. But when asked directly where her mother was in response to 'from your mother', it was then that Revolver froze up. He couldn't tell her, not yet, and not ever. She was gone forever, never coming back, and the story was too harsh for such a little one to handle in the first place, so the eventual (and doubted,) answer was always 'somplace safe'. And when further questioned about where said safe place was and that how did he know if he hadn't seen her in seven years (which is also what he told her) and that things changed from time to time... well, he gave up and probably forcibly sent her off to play with her friends.

But the years when and before she had been born... Revolver gave a shudder just thinking about them. It had been famine for all of them, feeding the young Spectrum cost them alot of food normally devoted to Revolver and Snowball, so they had to live off of one or two meals, if that, a day. And as if this wasn't enough, Snowball had been fired, and Revolver's paycheck was almost nothing. They had to sacrifice a lot. Their clothes, furniture... Everything, it seemed, just for that one child.

She wasn't even theirs. It was in their family nature to care more for others than they did themselves. Whilst Snowball couldn't have loved her more, he couldn't spend too much time with her. Revolver, on the other hand, spent every waking moment with her.

He was supposed to be her father, after all, and well, it was frequent sometimes, that he forgot he wasn't.

Speaking of which, he didn't know the real father. Her mother had never told Revolver about him.

His heart ached to talk about Spectrum's mother. He got back to his work on the bills.

It was a few more hours before anything else happened.

"OI DADDY! Ol' Skyline brought over 'is family tree!"

"I didn't know his family re-union was today."

"Heh, not that kind of tree!"

"What kind of tree, then, sweetheart?"

"Like... a tree tree, ya know? It has all this fruit on it!"

Revolver rolled his eyes. "So whaddya want me to do about it?"

"Come see it daddy, come see it!" she said energetically, bouncing up and down.

"Only for you, Spectrum. Only for you."

He pushed his desk away, and followed Spectrum out the door. she rounded the bend of clouds and took off in the direction of Old Man Skyline's house. She was there several minutes before Revolver, because he wasn't in the rush. He also couldn't just fly that fast whenver he wanted; he wasn't a filly anymore, and some serious streching was required for him to do any real fast paced flying; not that he was slow, he just never wanted to take the chance of spraining something. Revolver _was_ Rainbow Dash's childhood friend, after all.

Skyline's house was an old and dusty mansion, but still as white and shiny as was the theme in Cloudsdale. The difference being the house was obviously old, the wood-like substance on the outside of it cracked in many places, and the rainbow liquid that seemed to flow out of everything was a sickly grey colour.

But in the front, there was a massive apple tree. Roots and all, with a bed pulled up for it. Pegasi movers were swarming around around the tree, obviously pissed. Skyline was watching it and talking with Apple Spectrum.

"Ooh, here 'e comes now!" Spectrum said with a smile.

"How's it goin', Skyline?" Revolver said, trotting at a mediochre pace, staring at the giant tree before him.

"Well, Revolver, I finally got that tree up here like ah said I would. Listen, I'm not gonna be around for much longer," Skyline said, his tone suddenly changing from cheery to serious, " And, when I do pass on, I'm not gonna have anyone to give anythin' to, so ah want ye tae have me inheritance."

Revolver let him mouth gape a bit. "No, old man? Really? You wouldn't...?"

"Aye. Th' auld house n' everthin'. Do whatever ye want with it, I'm not going tae need it when I go. Ye'r the closest one tae me, an' ye know it. Little auld Spectrum's gottae life ahead o' her, an' ye'r really strugglin'. How would ye like th' tree, Spectrum?"

Spectrum was confused at the mention of inheritance, but at the mention of having that giant tree, she piped up. "Boy, would oi? Thanks, Mister Skyline! Wow, it's amazing!"

Skyline laughed, something he wasn't truly ever inclined to do. "Ye can come over any time ye want, as long as yer father let's ye go, an ye doan't make too much noise. I doan't have too much money, Revolver, ye know that, so I can't afford a gardener, but Spectrum can do it, right?"

"It's going to be planted here?" Revolver asked.

"I doan't see you havin' a giant plant bed fer it, now do I?" Skyline said dissaprovingly.

Revolver rubbed his mane. "I suppose so, but I can't let Spectrum do it all. I'll have to help sometimes, you know."

"That's fine with me. Ye can do whatever ye want. If ye'll excuse me, now I have tae tell these movers how it's done." he said, walking off.

"C'mon, Spectrum, let's go home. We have some sunflowers on the grill you know, and i'd like to eat them... not burned." Revolver said, trailing off the cloud.

Flying off, one could probably hear a lot of 'Ye cannae do it that way' and 'Ye'r an idiot, keep it right', but Revolver had the other details of the visit on his mind; (which also explained why he ignored Spectrum's protests about leaving,) The inheritance. Snowball would come home later and he would have to tell him. But for the next few months, all they would have to do is care for that tree. Revolver upheld his promise to help with it the first month, but after then he just stayed home; Spectrum usually hung out with her friends quietly there anyways, and when something did need doing, she would usually do it herself; she was a hard and dedicated worker, and she cared for that tree like any other pony would for for a favourite toy.

The funeral was seven months after that. Only Revolver, a few of the family, and someponies from his business that he ran. It was short, and nopony cried. Skyline would've scolded a pony for something like that. Then Revolver sold the apartment and moved in. He used the money from that to fix the house up.

Then, it happened. She was outside, picking the apples off and talking with one of freind's parents.

"Mister Cumulus, sir, d'ya think they'll grow back?"

"O'course, Spectrum. That's what apple trees do, y'know." his bearded face smiled at her innocence whilst walking around the tree; Apple Spectrum was up hovering slightly above the tree, carefully picking out the ones starting at the top.

"Well, when?" She looked at him, curious and cheery at the same time.

"I dunno, there are seasons... take good care of it, make rain regularly, sunshine, and, uh... It'll grow; i guess. Beutiful apples, those are." Cumulus said, Spectrum returned to picking them.

"I only wish there was a better way of picking them." She gave with a sigh.

"You tried kicking it yet? I heard you were amazing at soccer." Cumulus attempted, stopped to look up at her.

Spectrum's eyes rolled. "What will that do?"

Cumulus thought. "It's how they do it down in Coltsburg. Shakes the apples right off the the tree and into your basket."

Spectrum dropped the apples she was carrying into her basket and flew down and kicked the tree. The apples dropped off into muiltiple containers she had lying around. "... So, the apples just drop off like this and grow back eventually?"

"Uh-huh."

"You don't think we could get more of these trees, could we?"

"Well, they're expensive-"

"Ooh, I know what I can do! I'll save up for more! I'll start an entire orchard! We'll never go hungry again! Hah-ha! " And she went on, flying at near-top speed inside the house to get her savings out. She (quite litterally,) flew through the rickety old mansion, up two flights of stairs, and through her bedroom door. Her bedroom used to be the guest bedroom, with wood walls with only torn wallpaper that appered to be from the fifties and a beaten worn out futon with a small blanket on it the only things in the room. She didn't really do much inside in the first place but sleep, so it didn't matter to her. she reached under the futon and pulled out a piggybank. She shook it before pulling out the cork plug on the bottom. A treasure of coins fell out, everything she had saved since she could really remember.

"Twenty-seven... Twenty eight... One-hundred twenty eight. One-hundred twenty-eight! Surely enough bits!" Spectrum's eyes gleamed at the thought of at a tree sapling, at the very least. She bolted out of the room again, and just as she was leaving the room, Revolver was standing at the front door, carrying two baskets of apples.

"So, Spectrum, were you gonna just leave these out there? Whats with the bits? Where did you even get them?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

Spectrum stopped. "I've been saving these. And, no, I wasn't gonna leave them out there, I was just gonna go ge-"

Revolver nodded. "That's quite alright. What're you gonna do with the money?"

"Uhh... I'm gonna go see if I can buy another tree." she said, almost guiltily.

Revolver smiled. "With that many? I don't think so. Why don't you go and plant an apple or two?"

"Whuh?"

"Go plant an apple. A tree'll grow out of it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Here, after I'm done here I'll show you." Revolver walked past Spectrum and placed the apples in the kitchen. He came back out with one in his mouth and walked past Spectrum again, this time out of the door. He walked over to a spot in the bed that probably didn't have any of the other tree's roots in it, and took a bit of the apple. He chewed for a bit, and then spat out the seed.

"Right, you take the seed here, and you put it in the soil, just below the ground here, but not too much. Hang on, let me go get the till." Revolver said as he walked away to go get said tool.

When he came back afew minutes later, Spectrum had pulled some grass out and planted the seed exactly as it should have been. "Oh, you liar, you've done this before, haven't you!"

Spectrum turned around, confused. "Huh? I haven't done this before; I just did what you said."

Revolver let out a huff. "Well, you're really good at it, I can tell you that. Nopony I know can pull out grass and leave the soil like that. I need a tiller." he then used the tool on the ground and put the rest of the seeds in a good bit apart of each other.

He went to put the tool back, even though he could see Snowball in the distance. When he came back to the front yard, Snowball and Apple Spectrum were having a conversation.

Revolver stopped, and remembered he was going to cook supper with some of those apples. "I'm gonna go and get tea ready, Snowball. Can you look after her for a few?"

Snowball shot him a look he knew too well. It was his signiture 'I'm gonna kill you if anything goes wrong and I'm not there' look. Of course, it could also just mean 'I'm gonna kill you', but Revolver didn't really care. He went back inside and took a good long look in the pantry. Some corn, daisies, a primrose, and a sunflower was all that was in there. He took the sunflower and ate it, because he wasn't a die-hard for apples, and it was rotting in the first place. he then took a few apples and cut them in fours. He picked out the seeds and put them aside.

A hour or so later, he had figured out something and had two large plates that had something to do with apples and daisies on it. He was just putting them on the table when snowball came in, uncharacteristically happy-go-lucky.

"Hey Revolver, come out here, would you?"

"Uh... I'm putting stuff on table?"

"No, now!"

"Alright."

Revolver followed Snowball outside, to a scene where miscellaneous items were strewn across the yard and Spectrum was bouncing up and down, giggling with glee. It took revolver all of three seconds to realise what the point of this was.

Spectrum had a cutie mark. It was a little apple, with wings the colour of her hair.

This was amazing! No, wait... this was bad. Really, really bad. Revolver's eyes widened. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod. I-I... I promised i'd tell her Snowball. I promised! Oh, crap. Uh..."

Snowball looked at him like he was crazy. "What are you talking about? Tell who? About what?"

"Wh- I- She- I promised i'd let her see when this happened. She wouldn't let me tell you, and then I forgot. Oh, crap..."

"What? Are you talking abou-... Oh. No, we aren't going to. It's been so many years, she's forgotten."

"No, Snow. This is something we owe her. Something we owe SPECTRUM. How much longer do you think we can keep lying to her? I'm taking Apple Spectrum with me."

"... Well, I guess I can't stop you... Go. Tell her. Watch something go wrong. I don't care."

Revolver nodded. He looked at Spectrum, who was still bouncing about giggling. "Spectrum. Do you wanna go on a road trip with Daddy?" Spectrum stopped bouncing and giggling and answered with a gleeful smile on her face.

"Where, Daddy? Cuz' I wanna show my friends!" She started giggling again, but she was listening.

"We have to go to a town called Ponyville. At your speeds, it'll take about a couple hours. We gotta stay there for about a week though, is that okay, sweetheart?"

Spectrum stopped laughing. "Aww, but Daddy... Oh, okay! When do we go?"

"As soon as I get my bags."

* * *

><p>Author's note: I know nothing about planting, so I don't care if I defy logic with the entire apple thing. Also, inspired by a comic that's Here: .deviantart* .com?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=oh+my+dash#/d3gtpbf (remove *.)


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